Please can someone help me understand how I can get this end photo result?

[abby24591]

Hello!

Amateur photographer here. I'd like to take some still life shots and I am OBSESSED with trying to find out how you get a beautiful clean smooooth shot like the Paraiso image compared to the one of the rosé bottle?

I have a SONY a600 with a 18-200 lens and have no idea if it's the camera or if I'm editing incorrectly?

Screenshot 2021-02-10 at 10.12.48.png

• abby24591
• 10 Feb 2021

03F05060-A458-4B02-BDC1-82ABD9DBC4BE-008EEAC9-656B-4FBC-8AE5-E750635995DF.jpeg

• abby24591
• 10 Feb 2021

Any help would be so appreciated - thank you!

 

[FlyPhot]

They have probably reduced clarity quite a lot to give it the 'smoothed' look.

 

[sirch]

So what do your photos look like? It will help people suggest ways to improve.

Also someone is going to pitch up in a minute and start banging on about linking images and copyright. AFAIK what you have done is fine and comes under the Fair Dealing exemption but crediting the sources is polite.

 

[riddell]

It's 100% down to your studio setup, lighting, reflectors, flags.

Get that right and you could take this with a smartphone and zero editing.

 

[abby24591]

So what do your photos look like? It will help people suggest ways to improve.

Also someone is going to pitch up in a minute and start banging on about linking images and copyright. AFAIK what you have done is fine and comes under the Fair Dealing exemption but crediting the sources is polite.

Ah I'm so sorry I didn't know!

I took the photo of the rosé bottle and the Paraiso photo is by Unifikat Studio. This is only my second post so I'm not sure I'm allowed to link anything until after 3.

Thanks so much

 

[sirch]

Sorry I didn't realize the rosé bottle photo was yours.

beautiful clean smooooth shot

Buy an iron

Seriously the rosé photo is pretty good, what is it about it that you think could be improved? Compared to the example the white balance seems a little cool and could be warmed up a bit. The example shadows are softer so may be diffuse the light a little, try to move the bottle further from the background, use shallower depth of field and as has been said if you have an editing software such as Lightroom, recude the clarity/texture a bit

 

[abby24591]

Thank you so much for your tips - I've already tried the clarity adjustment and that was quite exciting!

I think the images I'm drawn to look like they're all shot using a studio/artificial lighting but I just wanted to see if there was any camera setting/editing/tricks that could help without the setup.

Its the super clean, professional (probably the keyword here) feel that I'm aching to achieve!

 

[riddell]

just wanted to see if there was any camera setting/editing/tricks that could help without the setup.

Its the super clean, professional (probably the keyword here) feel that I'm aching to achieve!

Again nothing to do with camera settings or tricks. You could do a bunch of manual highly skilled editing, but it will take you 10 times as long.

A professional grade image doesn't come easy, it's lots of skill, practice, experience along with a comphensive lighting setup.

It's insulting that you think it can be achieved with a few 'tricks'

If you are doing this for fun, fine.
If you are looking to be a professional photographer you have a huge amount to learn.
If you need this for commercial images for your business, then just employ a professional photographer.

 

[RichardC27]

I have a SONY a600 with a 18-200 lens and have no idea if it's the camera or if I'm editing incorrectly?

It's both. The super clean professional look is very hard to achieve with a base spec camera and a do everything 18-200mm lens. Professional bodies and lenses cost thousands of pounds for a reason, and a large part of that reason is image quality.

However, that's not to say you can't get very close using the equipment you have. As others have said, you need to think about light and how it plays across the image. Iron the sheet as you're using as your background. Just having no creases visible would tidy your photo up no end. Shoot in Raw, not Jpeg and learn how to use decent photo editing software, such as Lightroom, Affinity, On1, etc.

The white balance of your image is a lot cooler, so it needs warming up. Your shot is from down low and head on to the subject, rather than above and looking across as in the pro image. The pro image also has objects of a similar colour, giving it a yellow palette running through the whole shot. There's much more to it than just editing tricks, you need to visualise the image your want to end up with long before pressing the shutter button.

 

[abby24591]

It's both. The super clean professional look is very hard to achieve with a base spec camera and a do everything 18-200mm lens. Professional bodies and lenses cost thousands of pounds for a reason, and a large part of that reason is image quality.

However, that's not to say you can't get very close using the equipment you have. As others have said, you need to think about light and how it plays across the image. Iron the sheet as you're using as your background. Just having no creases visible would tidy your photo up no end. Shoot in Raw, not Jpeg and learn how to use decent photo editing software, such as Lightroom, Affinity, On1, etc.

The white balance of your image is a lot cooler, so it needs warming up. Your shot is from down low and head on to the subject, rather than above and looking across as in the pro image. The pro image also has objects of a similar colour, giving it a yellow palette running through the whole shot. There's much more to it than just editing tricks, you need to visualise the image your want to end up with long before pressing the shutter button.
[/QUOTE]


Thank you so much. Really understanding that you need to put in quality in order to get it out.

Those are super helpful pointers so thank you!

 

[RichardC27]

It's both. The super clean professional look is very hard to achieve with a base spec camera and a do everything 18-200mm lens. Professional bodies and lenses cost thousands of pounds for a reason, and a large part of that reason is image quality.

However, that's not to say you can't get very close using the equipment you have. As others have said, you need to think about light and how it plays across the image. Iron the sheet as you're using as your background. Just having no creases visible would tidy your photo up no end. Shoot in Raw, not Jpeg and learn how to use decent photo editing software, such as Lightroom, Affinity, On1, etc.

The white balance of your image is a lot cooler, so it needs warming up. Your shot is from down low and head on to the subject, rather than above and looking across as in the pro image. The pro image also has objects of a similar colour, giving it a yellow palette running through the whole shot. There's much more to it than just editing tricks, you need to visualise the image your want to end up with long before pressing the shutter button.

Thank you so much. Really understanding that you need to put in quality in order to get it out.

Those are super helpful pointers so thank you!
[/QUOTE]


This won't help with editing or anything like that, but sometimes if you download an image file the Exif data is intact and you can see the camera, lens and settings the photographer used. If you download the image on a Windows PC, right click on the file and select Properties, the go to the Details tab, it shows most of the data relating to the photo if it's still intact. Doesn't help much with visualising the image or getting the editing & setting right but it shows you how different looks can be achieved. It helped me a bit when I was starting out

 

[FlyPhot]

Hello!

Amateur photographer here. I'd like to take some still life shots and I am OBSESSED with trying to find out how you get a beautiful clean smooooth shot like the Paraiso image compared to the one of the rosé bottle?

I have a SONY a600 with a 18-200 lens and have no idea if it's the camera or if I'm editing incorrectly?

Screenshot 2021-02-10 at 10.12.48.png

• abby24591
• 10 Feb 2021

03F05060-A458-4B02-BDC1-82ABD9DBC4BE-008EEAC9-656B-4FBC-8AE5-E750635995DF.jpeg

• abby24591
• 10 Feb 2021

Any help would be so appreciated - thank you!

Here's my take on the kind of thing I think you're after - I may be way off the mark though (that's not to say that every other piece of advice you've been given isn't valid - far from it, you've been given first class advice and editing certainly isn't the best way to acieve 'professional' results). This is by no means perfect (some may even say it isn't even any good!) but it's a 2 minute edit in Affinity Photo ...